The Pain of Discipline (vv. 1-3). Eight times in the psalm David addresses God as “Lord–Jehovah,” the covenant name of God, and the address in verse 1 is repeated in 38:1, and see Jeremiah 10:24. When God deals with His children, usually He first rebukes and then chastens, just as parents first warn disobedient children and then discipline them (Heb. 12:5-6; Prov. 3:11-12). According to Hebrews 12:1-13, chastening is not punishment meted out by an irate judge but discipline given by a loving Father to help His children mature (see Rev. 3:19). Sometimes God chastens us in order to deal with our disobedience, but at other times, He chastens us to prepare us for what lies ahead. It’s like the training of an athlete for a race. David thought God was angry with him, but that wasn’t necessarily true. However, when you consider that he was surrounded by foes (v. 7), evildoers (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10) and that his body was weak and in pain and his soul troubled, you can see why he felt like he had a target on his back.

Three times he used the Hebrew word bahal, which means “faint, weak, troubled, terrified.” It is translated “vexed” in the King James Version (vv. 2, 3, 10), but in the seventeenth century, the word vex was much stronger than it is today. The translators of the Greek Old Testament used tarasso, which is the word used in the Greek of John 12:27: “Now is my soul troubled” (and see Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:34). Knowing that he deserved far more than what he was enduring, David begged for mercy (see 103:13-14) and asked God to send help speedily. The painful question “How long?” is asked at least sixteen times in the Psalms (6:3; 13:1-2; 35:17; 62:3; 74:9-10; 79:5; 80:4; 82:2; 89:46; 90:13; 94:3). The answer to the question is, “I will discipline you until you learn the lesson I want you to learn and are equipped for the work I want you to do.” According to Hebrews 12, when God disciplines us, we can despise it, resist it, collapse under it, and quit or accept it and submit. What God is seeking is submission.